Filed under: Features, Hands-on, Browser, Casual, MMO, Multiplayer, Opinion

Take note, adults. Children have more to do than mourn the loss of free time due to homework and watch cartoons for hours every day. Sometimes their cartoon worlds become threatened by evil invaders, and the heroes on those shows aren’t always capable of getting themselves out of jams. Nope, your children have to do that. It’s their job, and in FusionFall, the youth-centric MMO filled with Cartoon Network’s most popular characters, work is quite fun indeed.

Continue reading Hands-on: FusionFall

Hands-on: FusionFall originally appeared on Massive Download Blog on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Features, Action, FPS, Multiplayer, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Rage, Mirror’s Edge

Christmas is now over and we are now just a few days away from the begin of 2009. As with the beginning of any new year there is a feeling of excitement of what the next 365 days will bring. For the Computer game industry the new year is already looking very bright with a ton of highly anticipated game titles due to be released in the next 12 months.

Big Download has looked into our crystal ball (ok, it’s actually a Bioshock bobble head doll) for all of the games we hope to be playing in 2009. The result is a multi-part preview we will be running in the last days before 2008 is over with that’ll give you some idea of what to expect. Keep in mind that our preview is not meant to be absolutely comphensive as there are a number of games our there that have yet to be announced. Also, release dates for games can and do change so many of the titles in our feature might not make 2009 (in fact we have put in some games that we know won’t be released this year)

We even have some exclusive new screenshots to some of the games we are featuring in our preview article. One such shot is above from the upcoming Raven Software-id Software-Activision shooter Wolfenstein. For our first part of our 2009 PC game preview we take a look at a number of upcoming action and first person shooter titles. Stay tuned on Saturday as we’ll preview even more action games in the works.

Update: The second part of our action-FPS preview is now live

Click on the image above to continue reading our 2009 PC game preview on action and FPS titles

2009 (And Beyond) Personal computer Game Preview: Action-FPS Titles Part 1 originally appeared on Massive Download Blog on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Contests, RTS, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

We have a reminder this morning that we are in the last day of running a contest where one lucky Massive Download reader will win a Premier Edition version of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 along with some very nice Red Alert 3 swag. If you want to win it’s time to head over to the official contest web site, make a comment on that page (not this one) and then wait until we pick a winner. Thanks to Electronic Arts and our sister site GameDaily for donating the prize package. Good luck.

Final day for Red Alert 3 game and swag contest originally appeared on Massive Download Blog on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Interviews, MMO

We’ve been waiting for a long, long time to find out what in the wide, wide world of sports developer Red 5 Studios is making. The MMO developer, founded back in 2005 by former members of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft team, has only stated their first project would be published by Webzen and use the Offset game graphics engine developed by Offset Software (now owned by Intel).

Gamasutra has a new interview with Red 5 execs Michael Weingartner and Mark Kern and, well, it looks like the studio is still not willing to share what they’re doing. Kern says that they’re at least thinking about when and how they plan to announce their first game, saying. “We’re kind of in the meeting stages, planning that out, and we’re pretty excited because it’s going to be the first time that we get to show everyone what we’ve been working towards.” Still it seems that we are still a ways away from that reveal with Kern saying only, “In the coming months.”

Red 5 Studios continues to stay silent on game projects originally appeared on Huge Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Action, Screenshots

Christmas Day was the day that new game development company Game Mechanic Studios promised they would reveal the first details on their debut game title. This day the company didn’t disappoint as they officially revealed their action game Art of War.

The company released a concept piece and two in-game screenshots from the title. Their description of the game? “Art of War stars Warren Canvas, a reclusive millionaire with a love for art. His journey will take him on an adventure to famous battlegrounds of the past. These incredible places have all been re-imagined in an exciting new way. Get ready for war in a world with limitless possibilities. 20:1 odds will be a beautiful thing! ” Sounds highly ambitious. There’s no word yet on a release date.

Art of War revealed originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Culture, MMO

Studies about who actually plays on the internet Personal computer games are nothing new but a new report on some results from an Everquest II study has some people shaking their heads and saying, “Really?” A BBC story says that out of the 2,400 people who were surveyed, 40 percent of the players in the game were female and that they spent more time playing the game than their male counterparts.

Furthermore, the story says that the University of Delaware study “…revealed an unusually high level of bisexuality among the women who took part in the study – over five times higher than the general population.” The story says that people who took the survey received a one-of-a-kind in-game item. However, since the survey is dependent on people being on the honor system, the results have led many web sites, including GamePolitics, to question the honesty of the survey participants.The site says, “EQ II women are five times as prone to be bisexual? What’s the statistical likelihood of that occurring? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the survey relied on self-reporting data from EQII players.”

Some odd results in Everquest II survey originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Expansions, RTS, Sandbox, Simulation, Strategy, Spore

In October, Electronic Arts announced plans to release a second expansion pack to their alien evolution sim Spore this spring. EA stated the unnamed expansion would allow players in the Space stage of the game to “beam down from their spaceships to explore new planets and earn rewards for completing challenging missions.” It would also add an Adventure editor to the game that would “allow players to build and share online their own custom missions.”

While EA has not given any more info on this new expansion, a new Gamestop pre-order listing on the retailer’s web site might have revealed its official name. The listing shows a product called Spore Galactic Adventures which by its name alone certainly sounds a lot like what EA described in its expansion plans. The listing shows a March 17 release date for a $29.99 price point. Hopefully EA will reveal more early in 2009.

Spore Galactic Adventures spotted on Gamestop originally appeared on Large Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Biz, Culture

The day after Christmas is considered a great day to find some bargains in the US but for our neighbors in the north its another holiday on its own. Boxing Day happens on Friday in Canada and our buddies at our sister site Joystiq have found some deals on games tomorrow that’ll make anyone site up and take notice.

We’ve decided to steal borrow Joystiq’s list of the PC game deals that can be found over at Amazon Canada starting tomorrow at 3 am ET. More deals from other Canadian retailers can be found at Joystiq’s site.

• Age of Conan – CDN$ 19.99 (Reg. CDN$ 49.99)
• Gothic 3 Collector’s Edition – CDN$ 19.99 (Reg. CDN$ 39.99)
• Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods – CDN$ 14.99 (Reg. CDN$ 19.99)
• Spore Galactic Edition – CDN$ 39.99 (Reg. CDN$ 79.99)
• Warhammer On-line: Age of Reckoning – CDN$ 24.99 (Reg. CDN$ 49.99)
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (vf – French game-play) – CDN$ 27.99 (Reg. CDN$ 42.99)

Boxing Day Computer game deals (Canadians only, eh?) originally appeared on Large Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Meta BD

On behalf of all of the Big Download team we want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas Day. We hope all of you will have a very happy time no matter where you might be today and we also hope you get to spend some of your holiday time playing your favorite Computer game titles.

We anticipate news to be very slow so if there are no further updates to the site this day don’t worry; we haven’t dissapeared. We also anticipate news to be on the slow side for much of the holiday period until January 5. However we will be very busy during the next several days. Starting Friday we will start a multi-day preview at the upcoming 2009 (and even beyond) PC game titles including some new and exclusive to Large Download screenshots from many of these games. We will also have some other original content during this period.

Merry Christmas from Big Download originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Meta BD

On behalf of all of the Huge Download team we want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas Day. We hope all of you’ll have a very happy time no matter where you might be today and we also hope you get to spend some of your holiday time playing your favorite PC game titles.

We anticipate news to be very slow so if there are no further updates to the site this day don’t worry; we haven’t dissapeared. We also expect news to be on the slow side for much of the holiday period until January 5. However we will be very busy during the next several days. Starting Friday we’ll start a multi-day preview at the upcoming 2009 (and even beyond) PC game titles including some new and exclusive to Massive Download screenshots from many of these games. We will also have some other original content during this period.

Merry Christmas from Massive Download originally appeared on Massive Download Blog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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